- •Topical vocabulary
- •1. General terminology
- •2. Genres in painting
- •2.1. Landscape painting
- •3.3. Composition
- •3.4. Colour
- •3.5. Light and shade
- •3.6. Line(work)
- •3.8. Style and technique
- •5. Going round a museum or art gallery
- •6. Names of museums and galleries
- •Vocabulary exercises
- •X. Choose the right word:
- •Illustration and training
- •II. Make up statements choosing suitable words.
- •III. Make up statements.
- •IV. Make sentences using these patterns.
- •V. React to the following sentences as in the model below.
- •VI. Say you did not know about the facts your partner tells you.
- •VII. Tell what genres of painting would choose the following as their objects.
- •VIII. Object to the following statements.
- •IX. Memorize these short dialogues.
- •Glimpses of british art
- •I. An outline of english painting
- •Exercises
- •1. Read the text given above.
- •3. Find the English equivalents for:
- •4. Explain and expand on the following:
- •Portrait painting
- •I. Read the texts for obtaining information. Sir joshua reynolds
- •Thomas gainsborough
- •Exercises
- •1. Study the italicised phrases, translate the sentences with them, give a back translation without consulting the texts.
- •2. Explain or expand on the following:
- •II. Without translating the extracts give the English equivalents for the italicized words, groups of words or phrases and render the paragraphs.
- •III. Study and describe Thomas Gainsborough's famous picture Portrait of the Duchess of Beaufort. Make use of the text given below and the following vocabulary:
- •VI. Two portraits of sarah siddons
- •1. Study the text “Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse” in “In the World of Painting” ( p.P. 22-24). Summarize it. Use the following vocabulary:
- •2. Read the text of Ex. V in “Practical Course of English” (3d year) edited by Prof. Arakin, 1974, p. 145. Render it in English.
- •3. Pass your judgement on the opinion of an enthusiastic admirer who saw the “Mrs. Siddons” by Gainsborough in the Manchester exhibition of 1857.
- •4. Work in pairs. Compare the two portraits. Landscape painting
- •I. Give a brief talk about the outstanding English landscape painters Constable and Turner.
- •II. Read the following text and speak on the similarities and differences between Constable’s and Turner’s painting.
- •Exercises
- •1. Learn the italicized phrases and use them while speaking about the painters.
- •2. The following sentences may be used while speaking about the painters. Your task is to decide who they refer to:
- •III. Translate the following into English:
- •V. Act as interpreter in the following dialogue:
- •The tretyakov gallery
- •I. Describe the reproduction of Surikov's "Boyarina Morozova" using this text as a guide.
- •Exercises
- •1. Find in the text English equivalents for the following phrases and write them out:
- •2. Use the active vocabulary in sentences of your own.
- •3. Describe the “Boyarina Morozova” according to the following plan:
- •II. Act as interpreter in the following dialogue:
- •From "Christmas Holiday" by w. S. Maugham
- •1. Still Life with Soup Tureen by Paul Cezanne (1883 – 1885)
- •2. "Picnic" by Claude Monet (1866)
- •3. Portrait of Cardinal Bontivoglio by Antonis Van Dyck (after 1621)
- •Exercises
- •Free speech activity
- •Instructions
- •Reference literature
From "Christmas Holiday" by w. S. Maugham
"Chardin," he said. "Yes, I've seen that before... I've always rather liked his still lifes myself."
"Is that all it means to you? It breaks my heart."
"That?" cried Charley with astonishment. "A loaf of bread and a flagon of wine? Of course it's very well painted."
"Yes, you're right; it's very well painted; it's painted with pity and love. It's not only a loaf of bread and a flagon of wine; it's the bread of life and the blood of Christ, but not held back from those who starve and thirst for them and doled out by priests on state occasions; it's the daily fare of suffering men and women. It's so humble, so natural, so friendly; it's the bread and wine of the poor who ask no more than that they should be left in peace, allowed to work and eat their simple food in freedom. It's the cry of the despised and rejected. It tells you that whatever their sins men at heart are good. That loaf of bread and that flagon of wine are symbols of the joys and sorrows of the weak and lowly. They ask for your mercy and your affection; they tell you that they are of the same flesh and blood as you. They tell you that life is short and the grave is cold and lonely. It's not only a loaf of bread and a flagon of wine; it's the mystery of man's lot on earth, his craving for a little friendship and a little love, the humility of his resignation when he sees that even they must be denied him.
...And isn't it wonderful that with those simple objects, with his painter's exquisite sensibility, moved by the charity of his heart, that funny dear old man should have made something so beautiful that it breaks you? It was as though unconsciously perhaps, hardly knowing what he was doing, he wanted to show you that if you only have enough love, if you only have enough sympathy, out of pain and distress and unkindness, out of all the evil of the world, you can create beauty."
The extracts below will show you how paintings are described in art books and picture-gallery guides. Observe the difference in treatment comparing with the previous text.
1. Still Life with Soup Tureen by Paul Cezanne (1883 – 1885)
...Apart from oranges, and above all the apples which he has made famous the accessories used by Cezanne all have this in common: they were never objects of luxury. On this point Cezanne is more austere than Chardin, who always painted the more ordinary objects, but ones not lacking in a certain refinement of shape.
With Cezanne this is never the case. The round jam pots, the plain plates, the pots and jugs of grit stone, ordinary bottles – these are his favourite materials. Everything is sacrificed to volume and shape. The decorated and almost luxuriant soup tureen, which appears in this still life, is an exception.
The background in his pictures is always furnished; never, or hardly ever, is it neutral in shade. Behind these still lifes there is always a second still life: curtains, wallpaper or furniture, serving as decoration to the objects in the foreground. In this picture, it is pictures hanging on the wall. Among them on the left is a landscape; it is a road seen in perspective, giving a depth to the background of Cezanne's picture.
(From "Impressionist Paintings in the Louvre"
by Germain Bazin. Abridged.)